Option C: Extreme environments

Option C: Extreme environments

1. The characteristics of extreme environments

• Why some places are considered to be extreme environments

• Global-scale distribution of cold and high altitude environments (polar, glacial areas, periglacial areas, high mountains in non-polar places) and hot arid environments (hot deserts and semi-arid areas)

• Relief and climatic characteristics that make environments extreme, including unreliability and intensity of rainfall in arid environments and the risk of flash floods

• How relief, climate, human discomfort, inaccessibility, and remoteness present challenges for human habitation and resource development

• Detailed examples for illustrative purposes

• The changing distribution of extreme environments over time, including the advance and retreat of glaciers and natural desertification

2. Physical processes and landscapes

• How physical processes create unique landscapes in extreme environments

• Glacial processes of erosion, transport and deposition, and landscape features in glaciated areas, including cirques/corries, lakes, pyramidal peaks/horns, Arête, glacial troughs; lateral, medial and terminal moraine and erratics

• Periglacial processes of freeze-thaw, solifluction and frost heave, and periglacial landscape features, including permafrost, thermokarst, patterned ground and pingos

• Physical and chemical weathering in hot arid environments, and erosion, transportation and deposition by wind and water

• Hot, arid landscape features, including dunes, wadis, rock pedestals, mesas and buttes

3. Managing extreme environments

• The varying power of different stakeholders to extract economic value from extreme environments

• Agricultural opportunities and challenges in arid areas, including the distinction between aridity and infertility, irrigation access, salinization risk and land ownership

• Human and physical opportunities and challenges for mineral extraction in cold environments, including inaccessibility, permafrost and resource nationalism

• Case study of one cold environment to illustrate the issues

• Human and physical opportunities and challenges for mineral extraction in arid environments, including inaccessibility and climatic and political factors

• Case study of one arid environment to illustrate the issues

• Opportunities and challenges for tourism in extreme environments

• Detailed examples illustrating the involvement of local and global stakeholders

4. Extreme environments futures

• Future possibilities for managing extreme environments and their communities

• The causes, acceleration, consequences and management of desertification, including land use, conflict and climate change

• One case study illustrating the human and physical dimensions of desertification

• Increasing competition for access to resources in extreme environments, including the role of indigenous groups, civil society organizations, transnational corporations (TNCs) and militia groups

• One case study to highlight the issues

• New technology and sustainable development in extreme environments, including greater use of solar power and desalination

• The impacts and management of global climate change in extreme environments, including adaptation by local populations

Synthesis (Sy), Evaluation (Ev) and Skills (Sk) opportunities

• How places and people in extreme environments are affected by spatial interactions with other places and people [Sy]

• The varying spatial scale of the processes and challenges associated with different kinds of extreme environment [Sy/Ev]

• Varying perspectives on how and why extreme environments are managed [Ev]

• How glacial systems and climatic data are best represented graphically [Sk]